'El Chapo' transferred to prison near US

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Mexican officials transfer drug cartel kingpin Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman to a prison in Cuidad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas.

CUIDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO (Reuters) - Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was Mexico's No. 1 drug lord when he was captured in 2014.

Officials took him to Federal Social Re-adaptation Centre No. 1, also known as Almoloya, just outside Mexico City.

But the very next year he escaped, by building a tunnel under his shower area that stretched some 1,500m.

It took police six months to track him down to a safe house in the northwestern part of the country, only to have him slip away again through a storm drain.

But helicopters combing the area spotted him and he, and a companion, were arrested.

El Chapo was then returned to Almoloya in January this year, the same prison he had escaped from.

Now, he's been transferred to a federal prision in Ciudad Juarez, only a few miles from El Paso, Texas.

Guzman's attorney, Juan Pablo Badillo, says that does not worry him now, but that could change after the US presidential election.

"President Obama is considered a fair man, a man who respects human rights. But what if we had Donald Trump as US president? Trump says he wants to take El Chapo to the US so he can kick his ass. They'll probably continue hurting him until they kill him," said Mr Badillo.

It is not known what prompted the prison transfer.

It is clear that he is now only a few miles from the US where there is a US$5-million (S$6.8-million) bounty on his head.

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